Stories by Liam Tung

Win8 SmartScreen nudges software sellers to buy code signing certs

Microsoft’s SmartScreen ‘reputation checker’ is expanding from the Internet Explorer browser to the entire Windows 8 desktop, nudging developers to buy Extended Validation (EV) code signing certificates to reduce their chances of causing a security alert.

New hijack threat emerges for DNS Changer victims

Potentially tens of thousands of machines once infected by the DNS Changer may be at risk of hijacking after IP address blocks were reallocated last week.

Mac Flashback infections still over 140k says Russian AV firm

The infamous Mac trojan Flashback, which infected 800,000 Mac OS X machines at its height this April, is still lingering on over 140,000 computers, according to Russian security firm, Dr Web.

WikiLeaks wins credit card bout

A District Court order in Iceland’s capital Reykjavík has ordered local payments provider Valitor to open services to WikiLeaks again or face a hefty US$6,000 a day penalty.

AV just doesn’t work for targeted attacks: Schneier

Antivirus vendors missed Flame, Stuxnet and Duqu because they never considered them a priority, not because the attackers were superior, says security technologist Bruce Schneier.

MI5 boss: “astonishing” amount of cyber attacks

MI5 Director General Jonathan Evans says there is an “astonishing” level of aggressive internet vulnerability exploitation by both state-sponsored and organised cybercrime groups.

Smart meter data a huge privacy risk, says EU watchdog

Europe’s independent privacy watchdog is pushing for tight controls over smart meter data collection, fearing the data could be used to exploit and harm consumers.

McAfee’s AV study shows why Win8’s Defender is needed

McAfee’s estimate that 17 per cent of PC users worldwide do not run AV is why Microsoft should extend its Windows 8 enhanced Defender-by-default to older and even pirated Windows.

Flame a glimpse into the Bermuda triangle of malware

The bloated, modular Flame malware may or may not be the biggest threat since Stuxnet, but its tardy discovery highlights the limits of antivirus in a world where governments are investing heavily in offensive cyber capabilities.

Official Australian e-health info page defaced

An apparent trio of ‘hackers’ operating under the LatinHackTeam banner has claimed the Australian Government’s Department of Health and Ageing eHealth education site as its 13,789th ‘defacement‘ victim.

Syrians, Iranians endangered by key-log tricked proxy

Iranians and Syrians that search the web for a popular censorship evading proxy, ‘Simurgh’, are at risk of downloading a fake, trojanised version of the privacy tool.

Facebook becomes antivirus reseller

Facebook has teamed up with five security vendors to offer a range of free and subscription-based antivirus packages.

Microsoft quietly updates free AV Security Essentials

Microsoft has released a new version of Security Essentials offering free protection for non-pirated Windows XP, Vista and 7 PCs.

Google raises flaw bounty to $20k under new rules

Google has raised its top payout to researchers who find serious flaws by a factor of six from $3,133.77 to $20,000, but to qualify for the highest payout researchers must find critical vulnerabilities affecting its production systems.

Men chuck or reformat old devices more so than women

A study commissioned by the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICOI) has revealed that just 11 per cent of 230 discarded second hand hard drives contained personal information.